Yoooooo, I've been waiting for this game to release in the US for years. The soundtrack is really nice (I even chose it as one of my picks for MOTY2015. If they really do release it over here, then I'll pick it up day one. :)

Initially it looked like a JRPG where you're playing as a fuck off dragon that needs a party of humanoids to 'get to deculture' you (i.e. play music for you non-mecha anime nerds out there) so that you aren't just a mindless rampaging beast.

Then the game came out and it was a really bad Tales of Clone that's both dull as dishwater and has a protagonist who did the 'turns into a dragon' thing worse than FE Fates' Corrin did (both are stupid self-insert walking power fantasies who can magically do the dragon, bang everybody, and needs the power of song to stay not-Berserk, but at least Corrin occasionally whips out some dragon breath hadokens and drill limbs while fighting as a human (and eventually comes away with a flaming chainsaw sword); whereas Shining Resonance's MC just slaps his generic JRPG sword onto his forehead when Draconing and calls it a day). Then again, I don't think SR's MC ever sets his sword to stun like Conquest's Corrin does (although, IIRC, its primarily because there isn't enough plot in SR that such an issue has the time to crop up).

Basically, it'd take somebody like Yoko Taro to come up with a game where the protagonist is a walking force of nature that a bunch of do-gooding, well-intentioned extremists tame by providing sentience to, only to have said protagonist basically question their role in whatever holy war s/he got drafted into and opts to say things like 'nuts to that' and fucks off with their newly gained sentience to do whatever it is that s/he feels like doing, or 'fuck that' and decides that s/he really doesn't have that much of a stake in the war and thus turns on everybody.

This game is so hilarious. I have to share a sequence of scenes from the early game, because I just busted a gut. I'm less than five hours in, so nothing I'm about to say will be a spoiler.

Yuma and his team are fighting an ice dragon. Battle goes well, ice dragon drops like a brick, but in the next cutscene the Empress plays her flute lance (god bless Japan) and the dragon is fine. Despite being perfectly positioned to fight it again (and again and again), everyone in the party panics. Then a mysterious man with a katana shows up and hits the dragon multiple times for 9999 damage per-hit. The enemy flees, we flee, and everything is daijobu... until katana-man turns his sword on Yuma and demands that he show him the Shining Dragon. Yuma is too much of a coward, and is nearly killed until a random red-haired guy saves him. Next we fight katana-man, who by the magic of plot is now level 19 and barely hits harder than a standard enemy. I select Yuma, instantly turn into a dragon, and stomp his face in.

Queue several scenes of Yuma winging about not turning into a dragon when Katana-man attacked him.

I laughed. I laughed so hard. See, ludonarrative dissonance bothered me in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 because that game's story had a lot of potential. Even if they told the same story with a few tweaks, it could have been a really enjoyable -- if slightly predictable -- experience. But Shining Resonance? I'll be happy if the characters evolve beyond pandering arch-types. The same can be said of combat. I'm harsh on Tales because I think Tales not only tries to do more, but could reach that point if they really work at it. Shining Resonance's combat is... okay. It's so simplistic that I can't even criticise it.

I got this game expecting something mediocre, and I'm getting exactly that. Somehow, it just makes for a delightful experience, if not a particularly fulfilling one.

...and meanwhile, I'd rather just save my money and wait for Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition to release, and I might play through either Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Symphonia in the meantime. That just sounds like a more enjoyabe exerience to me than a game that is thoroughly mediocre, predictable - "Just ok" is damning praise at best, IMO...

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“MY NAME IS POKEY THE PENGUIN I LOVE CHESS!! IT IS LIKE BALLET ONLY WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS!”I Draw Stuff Sometimes

At the end of the day it's such an odd game to talk about. Personally, I'm enjoying the goofiness. For instance, there are moments where you can talk to party members in town, and they ask you questions. Answer correctly and not only will little hearts will pop up, but the character will give you an item. When I answered elf-girl's question correctly, hearts popped up, she blushed, and gave me an item called 'magic nectar'.

I busted a gut, because the item is just a standard mana restorative (albeit a 100% one, further adding to the hilarity).

Combat is another area where the game is competent, but underwhelming. There are special moves and enemies have breaking points that require different timing, so it does have some layers even if you're just gonna be mashing circle most of the time. The biggest win for Shining is that battles don't reminded of Tales. This is much slower paced and not really interested in combos, so it makes for a very different feel. It's more about your stats than your ability to dodge around an enemy. That said, every single boss fight can be easily won by transforming into a dragon and stomping the bejesus out of the enemy. I mean, I can fight level 58 enemies at level 30 with no trouble because it's so dang overpowered (and as of now, there is no 'higher difficulty').

If all of this sounds like 'damning praise'... it is. Even though I don't really get constantly reminded of Tales while playing Shining, I l still feel Tales does everything Shining does better (unless you're into dating your party members). Personally I've played Graces four times, Symphonia/Abyss/Xillia 1 three times, and Vesperia/Xillia 2/Zestiria/Berseria twice. I'm pretty well tapped out on Tales.

Shining Resonance isn't a *bad* game (so far), it's just a mediocre one. I think that would probably be my final opinion: if you're in the mood for this ARPG/JRPG-style hybrid and aren't yet burned out on Tales, go play Tales. If, like me, you've played Tales to death (and think Star Ocean is a depth of frustration and stupid choices), give Shining a try. It might not be the best, but at least it's different.

At the end of the day it's such an odd game to talk about. Personally, I'm enjoying the goofiness. For instance, there are moments where you can talk to party members in town, and they ask you questions. Answer correctly and not only will little hearts will pop up, but the character will give you an item. When I answered elf-girl's question correctly, hearts popped up, she blushed, and gave me an item called 'magic nectar'.

I busted a gut, because the item is just a standard mana restorative (albeit a 100% one, further adding to the hilarity).

This doesn't sound hilarious though. This sounds like your typical harem scenario with the "subtle" double-ententes, that's maybe amusing if you haven't seen the other 1001 other exact same scenarios making the exact same "subtle" double-ententes. Hell, noted PS2/3 JRPG series Ar Tonelico not only did the harem scenario but went total ham on it, and compared to that, Shining whatever doesn't even compare. But that and the mediocre/not even Tales of combat are the legs it chose to stand on, and those stubby nobs can only manage to stand up into the crowd. Blending in. Getting lost in a sea of tepid mediocrity.

I forgot about this game between 2014 and 2017, managed to forget about it until its launch a week ago, and I'll probably forget about it in about a month or two, if that.

At the end of the day it's such an odd game to talk about. Personally, I'm enjoying the goofiness. For instance, there are moments where you can talk to party members in town, and they ask you questions. Answer correctly and not only will little hearts will pop up, but the character will give you an item. When I answered elf-girl's question correctly, hearts popped up, she blushed, and gave me an item called 'magic nectar'.

I busted a gut, because the item is just a standard mana restorative (albeit a 100% one, further adding to the hilarity).

This doesn't sound hilarious though. This sounds like your typical harem scenario with the "subtle" double-ententes, that's maybe amusing if you haven't seen the other 1001 other exact same scenarios making the exact same "subtle" double-ententes. Hell, noted PS2/3 JRPG series Ar Tonelico not only did the harem scenario but went total ham on it, and compared to that, Shining whatever doesn't even compare. But that and the mediocre/not even Tales of combat are the legs it chose to stand on, and those stubby nobs can only manage to stand up into the crowd. Blending in. Getting lost in a sea of tepid mediocrity.

I forgot about this game between 2014 and 2017, managed to forget about it until its launch a week ago, and I'll probably forget about it in about a month or two, if that.

My point was that it wasn't a 'subtle' double-entente. 'Magic nectar' is a standard item, and it wasn't a date scene -- just a regular conversation. It was just a combination of coincidences that made it amusing. If it was intentional, it wouldn't be funny.

It's similar to how being able to destroy things as a dragon is funny, because I honestly cannot tell if the devs even remotely thought that through. They designed this combat system around breaking enemy's guards for massive damage, and even have multiple characters that you can control for different play-styles, then render it all pointless with the dragon. They limited the dragon by making it go insane after a period of time, but quickly give you the BAND option, which negates that time limit for a different, longer one that also buffs the whole party. The game itself even suggests that you use this strategy, which just further makes me wonder what was going through the dev's heads.

I guess what makes the game work to me is that it's trying so hard to be more, but it keeps getting slipped up by its own stupid mistakes. It has a plot and characters and gameplay that it takes seriously... but doesn't seem aware of how dumb, broken, contradictory, or tread-to-death it is. I mean ffs, the arc for the main character is that he's scared to use the power of the dragon... that you can literally use in every single battle from the start of the game.

It's this complete lack of self-awareness that makes the whole thing funny, at least for me. It's no DmC: Devil May Cry (which is, to quote a friend, "Truly 'The Room' of video-games"), but personally I'm still having enough of a good time to feel like it was worth the cost. Is it a good game? No: I never said that, which is why I wouldn't really recommend it to others unless they've totally exhausted everything else in the genre and are desperately in want for this type of game. Won't stop me from enjoying it my own way though.

Given the lack of an announcement, I doubt there's going to be a Shining Resonance 2, but SEGA is looking at their older IPs, so who knows what the future has for the franchise. I don't think you should ever buy a game solely for the chance that the next one might be better, but seeing as I'm getting a good laugh, discounted price, AND a chance for a localisation of the next -- hopefully better -- Shining game (hopefully Shining Force because for god's sake SEGA, throw those people a bone)? Nah, no regrets.

Well, now that I finished right at 24 hours, I want to give two final thoughts.

Firstly, I want to share my experiences in a late-game encounter. During this encounter you play as two characters fending off multiple waves of enemies. Since back-up party members don't receive exp, they were levels 35 and 40, up against enemies leveled 55-62. Not only is this an awful practice in ANY game, it was almost enough to make me quit. I decided to give it one more go after turning the difficulty down to easy, and after burning through every single healing item in my inventory, found myself facing against the level 61 armour that served as the final battle.

This is where things got interesting, because it actually wasn't a bad fight. All of his moves were telegraphed, giving enough time for my slow character to get out of the way (I had the other party member set to hold back and heal). I discovered that blocking just before a hit nullifies damage, so when I didn't have enough time to dodge around his shield side, I could still survive. The fight gradually developed a rhythm, and while simplistic, it was the most engaging battle in the entire game. The only thing ruining it was its insane amount of health, my abysmal damage output, and the frustration surrounding the entire situation.

This is Shining Resonance in a nut-shell: there is something here, but it's so buried beneath mediocrity that even 24 hours felt over-long.

Which brings me to my second thought: I have a hard time imagining a sequel. I don't mean the realistic viability one: rather, I just enjoy thinking about sequels as a thought exercise on finishing games. It makes me think about what aspects I felt were important/not-important, done well/needs improvement/removed entirely, and so on. For instance, Catherine felt like a good game that fell just shy of a must-play, and I'd love to see just one sequel to really flesh out those ideas. Radiant Historia, by contrast, felt like it executed its ideas perfectly the first time around, and I don't think it needs a sequel.

Shining Resonance though? I'm not saying that nothing good could come of it -- I'm not that pessimistic -- but it feels like the game doesn't have enough of a core identity to build off of. Even with more fights like the aforementioned armour, combat still needs a lot of work if it's going to rival Tales (even if it's doing its own thing). Characters and plot feel about on-par with the likes of Atelier, but unlike Atelier it doesn't have the unique alchemy system. It does have AN alchemy system which, along with tunnings and aspects, make-up the most unique traits... but even expanded I can't see them carrying an entire game.

Ultimately those two thoughts say more about my overall feelings than the myriad plus' and minus' I could bring up. I want to defend Shining Resonance because I don't get the cynical vibes that I feel from a lot of modern anime games, but at the end of the day it's mediocrity in a market where there's just too many quality alternatives. I'm glad that SEGA listened to the fans who have wanted a return of the Shining series in the west, but I can't help but feel it would have been better received in 2015, when Zestiria shoved Tales to the edge of the cliff Xillia and Xillia 2 were heading towards.

Almost every Sega JRPG is somewhere between mindnumbingly mediocre to absolute gutter trash. However pretty much once a console generation Sega lays down a fantastic, original, OMG I love u Sega please make more JRPGs, JRPG. Its frusturating because it seems like the talent has always been there for Sega to be the best RPG developer/publisher on the planet, but they aren't.

Uh....I think Sega's had more than one really good RPG per generation. I really don't get what you're on about, Rook. The Shining franchise has been out of the hands of its original developers for a long time now, and Sega just doesn't know what to do with it anymore. Apparently generic RPGs with dating sim elements sold well enough for them to make 3 games with, and if it continues to sell within a profitable margin, we may see more of it...really isn't rocket science...obviously there could be talented people within Sega that could have better ideas as to where the franchise could go, but don't get supported for one reason or another. We've already seen other half-baked ideas or pitches for new IPs get used as half-backed spin-offs or sequels in Sega's other franchises, and as far as I'm aware, this is nothing new when you work in even a moderate-sized media companies...

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“MY NAME IS POKEY THE PENGUIN I LOVE CHESS!! IT IS LIKE BALLET ONLY WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS!”I Draw Stuff Sometimes

I mean, it's not like Phantasy Star even remotely resembles the turn-based JRPGs it began as, so it's not like Shining Force is the only franchise that got completely altered for the sake of financial gain.

I mean, it's not like Phantasy Star even remotely resembles the turn-based JRPGs it began as, so it's not like Shining Force is the only franchise that got completely altered for the sake of financial gain.

Uh, except Phantasy Star afterwords was both consistant, and good. It's not like Shining, which has been through a myriad of gameplay style changes, none of which ever seem to stand out, and often can be assumed to be chasing well-established genre trends.

I mean, I'm still not entirely sure I understand what Rook was getting at, but I assumed he was trying to use Shining Resonance as an example of how Sega RPGs usually suck, which I definitely don't agree with, or at least I found his wording to be a gross hyperbole when there are plenty of good RPGs published by Sega on the whole, especially when you look at their entire library, and even Shining Resonance isn't a great example of when they are outright bad. Seriously, even a lot of Sega's bad RPGs usually have some kind of recognizable gimmick that sets it apart, even if they're not implemented well. I'm just arguing that the Shining series has issues on its own that could've and has hurt other series in the same situation. The franchise lost its original creators, and its identity along with it. None of the games since the Saturn days feel like Shining games, nor do they feel like they were made with any care for the history of the series, and just seem to use the brand name to sell a mediocre game.

Basically, without Camelot, the Shining series ceased to be anything special. Not always terrible (just Shining Souls, really), but nothing to write home about.

« Last Edit: July 22, 2018, 11:42:38 PM by Mickeymac92 »

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“MY NAME IS POKEY THE PENGUIN I LOVE CHESS!! IT IS LIKE BALLET ONLY WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS!”I Draw Stuff Sometimes